"Coffee Shop Philosopher" - Noun - This is a label given to people who enjoy sitting in coffee shops and discussing philosophy. This ties into the common stereotype of philosophers and philosophy students alike; that they are coffee addicts. Other stereotypes of addiction include: cigarettes, cigars, pipes, alcohol, boring pamphlets, and marijuana.
Some use "Coffee Shop Philosopher" as a means of slander or jeering. When used in this way it connotes a certain level of authority of the person calling someone else a Coffee Shop Philosopher. Essentially they're insinuating that the one who is a Coffee Shop Philosopher is someone who only knows the tip of the iceberg of philosophy, or again they are insinuating the connotations listed above.
Some use "Coffee Shop Philosopher" as a means of slander or jeering. When used in this way it connotes a certain level of authority of the person calling someone else a Coffee Shop Philosopher. Essentially they're insinuating that the one who is a Coffee Shop Philosopher is someone who only knows the tip of the iceberg of philosophy, or again they are insinuating the connotations listed above.
"Thraysmachus: Should we invite Aristophanes to the discussion?"
"Socrates: Nah, he's a Coffee Shop Philosopher."
"Socrates: Nah, he's a Coffee Shop Philosopher."
I think I'm the last person on earth, who still enjoys a smoke with my coffee. C'est la vie.
ReplyDeleteNo, not the last person. Not the first either.
DeleteI'll join you for a cup of coffee, Esttelle. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome. Would that be with cream and sugar, or straight black? I had to step out for a minute, glad you stayed. Somebody told me, that you had a good story to share?
DeleteBlack is fine. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, too.
DeleteSo it starts. Talking back and forth to myself, thinking of different characters. Thinking of different times.
ReplyDelete14 years have gone by, since I first got on the internet anonymously and ran into my brother in law first thing in an aol chatroom. From that moment on, I knew it wasn't as anonymous as we would like to think. Too much synchronicity in my life. Maybe for somebody else.
14 years ago? Damn Estte', you are ancient ! Ancient history. And you call yourself a philosopher? Just because you smoke cigarettes and drink coffee? Yeh, that's real 'deep'...lol...
ReplyDeleteIt is sort of deep, in a way. Just let me ramble a bit, k? You don't have to read it, if you don't want to.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got on the internet, it had only been 3 years since my divorce.
One of the most horrible divorces ever, for collateral damage. Believe me, I know. Worse than death, even. And I know, I've been thru death now, a few times. It comes from being ancient.
You know, I actually am a caretaker of a cemetery...
3 'knows'...hmmm....interesting. No?
ReplyDeleteTo me, it is. To you it might not be.
ReplyDeleteCoffee?
I apologize. Please, go on.
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ReplyDeleteokay, I get it. This is very tragic. But, how exactly does this tie in with the internet? I thought that was your point, how your divorce was worse than death? And, you are going to tell us all about it, eh?
DeleteNo. No, no I'm not going to tell you all about that part of my life, in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI was in a slight car accident a couple years ago. Hit from behind on a rainy day, while I was at a traffic light, waiting to turn left. There was a slight neck injury that required some physical therapy a few months after.
Part of the therapy was a deep tissue massage.
It's true, what they say about memories being stored away and sometimes released later.
It took a few days, but memories of my childhood came flooding back. Like I was there, again.
The years that came back to me, was from age 7 to 10, the years between my mother dying, and my dad remarrying.
The lonesome years, I've always called them in my mind.
a song pops up in my mind, while I'm typing this, and I laugh...
...Spaceballs...
(8)....'Nobody's seen the troubles I've seen...' (8)
I'd still like to know what is the point of all this?
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ReplyDeletedang it. It shows where it's been deleted.
ReplyDeleteIf anybody knows me from the internet, I am the Queen of Deletes.
Long story short, as far as it pertains to the internet. After I cut almost all my friends and family off, I had no one left to visit with.
Here comes the first internet chat rooms, and I LOVED them. I could be myself, or anybody else I pleased. I wasn't that good at inventing characters, but I met alot that were very good.
I thought it was great entertainment, going along with them, the different characters they would be at different times.
Wow....
ReplyDeleteThis last note, I wrote 8 days ago. Since then, my computer went completely down, had to get a new hard drive. Coincedence, or sychronicity? You tell me.
When you weren't here, I wasn't either. Where did we go?
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ReplyDeleteI did wonder what had happened, but then I forgot. I drifted away, and made my own life.
ReplyDelete*deep sigh*
ReplyDeleteHere's where the internet comes in. All those old letters were on paper. I had looked for them, years ago and couldn't find them. I thought maybe my stepmother had taken them with her. Either that, or I had thrown them away, and I don't do that, with important papers. I read them first and then I burn them. What I had done, was hid them from myself until the time was right.
I was writing and thinking so deeply up there, of the past. The next day, I decided to go thru a bunch of old papers that I had stored away in a plastic tub, forgotten about on a top shelf of the storage room. We got a leak in the roof awhile back and I had pulled that plastic tub out, and brought it to another storage area to go thru 'someday'. I found those old letters 2 days after I wrote about my mom and her brother up above.
My energy must have been so intense, along with a few power surges here in reality, storms...., that my hard drive went out. Completley. This isn't the first time either, that computers coffee pots, microwaves etc. etc. anything electronic, if I'm thinking real hard, with blow out. I've hit the light switches, and seen smoke. And not just at this house, anywhere. I tend to stay away from people, because of this. This 'energy' is not always a gift, and I'm not the only one that has it.
Be specific Esttelle. I
ReplyDelete've been reading you long enough, to know that there is always more to the story. I made us a fresh pot of coffee. Smoke?
I promise, I won't laugh out loud.
I don't care if you laugh. I think it's a bit funny, myself.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you laugh with me, and not at me. K?
I'm not going to make promises I might not be able to keep ! LOL !
ReplyDeleteNow, how can you tell if that was for you, or at you?
I thin it was a little bit of both and I guess that's okay. I have a tablet now, that I am using to philosophize.
ReplyDeleteGo on.
ReplyDeleteThe first letter I found, was one my oldest daughter had written to me. It was very melodramatic yet touching. She was making plans to leave home. I saved it out, and gave it back to her. She loved it. Next, I found a bunch of drawings her little brother had drawn, same time era. One was a cartoon of them arguing. That one was so funny but true, she put it on her Facebook. I saved all them out for him.
ReplyDeleteA few days go by, and there are my letters. What do I do with them?
I hadn't read them in 17 years. So I read them once more..
Reading my own words, so soon after chuckling about my own children, it struck me how childish I sounded, and I knew I owed my people an apology.
17 years of stubbornness on my part is quite long enough.
Go on ...
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ReplyDeleteHmmmmm....
ReplyDelete4 months later...
ReplyDeleteI did write my apology in an email, sent it to all my mother's family.
I didn't go into detail, just aplogized and let it go.
Then, just so that everybody would know what as going on, in case they talked, I wrote another email to my brother and sister and to 'the folks', my dad and stepmother.
Of course, I also let my children and my husband know what was going on in my mind, that I was letting go of the grudge, and had reopened communications. That I loved them all.
I've heard back from a few people.
What'd they say?
ReplyDeleteThe very next day, I got an email from one of my uncles saying it was with tears of joy, to hear from me.
ReplyDeleteThat made me feel so good. We've been visiting back and forth ever since, catching up on the last 40 years, with stories and packages.
Nothing too personal, just us.
The next was from the other uncle, just saying 'hey' and maybe they'd come see me sometime. I wrote back, saying that would be fine. I'm enjoying his blog.
Within a day or so, my brother and sister both wrote back with a short note, that they loved me. That was a nice reassurance.
My children and my husband are happy for me, but it doesn't really matter that much to them, except my oldest daughter who is on facebook. Since then, she's made friends with a few of them. Maybe the cousins can get aquainted a bit, that way.
...okay...
ReplyDeletesecrets?
ReplyDeleteWhat? does that pique your interest? That I might know a 'secret'..?
ReplyDelete.....yeAssss...
ReplyDelete....hmmmmm....
ReplyDeleteYeh...hmmm...to you too.
ReplyDeleteI opened a facebook for myself awhile back, about 2 years ago. I thought ..well...if you can't beat them, join them. I did use this avitar and a different name. One that I thought people that knew me would know.
I thought to try it out with my anonymous friends that I had made on the internet first. I only have one link left, and it's been pretty quiet for going on 4 or 5 years now.
Posted a thread with an opening question about a year ago, and nobody has 'bit' yet. I might be a bit obtuse.
I never thought 'age' made that much of a difference on the first internet, where it was all words.
ReplyDelete'by their words ye shall know them'...Isn't that in the Bible somewhere?
Let me google that for you.
ReplyDeleteWell, I couldn't wait on you, so I googled it too. Words, works, fruit is sort of intermingled but same difference. Don't you just love the google?
ReplyDeleteSometimes
ReplyDeleteYeh. I find myself googling people, but I don't want them to google me.
ReplyDeleteI opened up that facebook, and sat on it for the first two years. Used it to 'spy' a bit. Didn't really see a whole lot going on, so thought it would be safe to try. Made 'friends' with my brother and sister first.
Made it private and put a few pictures up, for them.
I checked on my site, from another facebook account that my oldest daughter shares with me. The pictures, and friends were not 'private', no matter how many times I pushed the right buttons.
Dang it. People's faces that I hadn't thought about in years, showed up on my timeline. Not that there was anything so 'bad' about it, just ..sort of creepy, to my mind.
I don't 'get' it.
ReplyDeleteWhy would something you knew would happen, and you expected it to happen, and you made it happen..., and then you get creeped out?
I think, you're the creepy one, Estte'
Yeh. I am. I admit it.
ReplyDeleteBut, but..., you're still reading me, aren't you?
Sometimes
ReplyDeleteIt's been 8 months! I went to another blog site for awhile, and was having some fun.
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ReplyDeleteTying loose threads together, writing my 'memoirs' here on the internet, in blog form.
ReplyDeleteTwo years later...What was going on back then, on that date that I would delete, and not come back? hmmm...hmmm...
This is not so hard, just check your email. Oh my...
I'd forgotten all about that.
I should copy and paste. I've checked the settings 'here' and as far as I know, they are still private. Yet, I have found that I think I have a few page followers. They watch me as I type. This is not paranoid, this is pretty much fact. I've verified it, thru a few books. No big deal, it's nothing that nefarious, just sort of prosaic, and for some reason they stay interested.
So anyway, I check the email, and this is what it says...
...eh, not going to reprint the whole thing. It was the start, no the continuation of the late night drunken phone calls, crying for help.
ReplyDeleteFor awhile there, I was able to make it sort of 'funny', like 'how over dramatic is this?' Shortly there after, I found out it could go a whole lot further. Way, way further...Some people have died since then. A few that I've never met in person, only knew thru the internet, but was looking forward to sitting down on the back porch with them, some day. A few in 'real life', almost exactly a year ago, my oldest two's step mother died. Totally unexpected, and very tragic. Her husband, the father of my children, my ex husband has also now died, just yesterday. It's taking a bit, to sink in.
ReplyDeleteI think I will publish this now, and see what it looks like.
..eh, it doesn't look too bad. I tell you what though, that obituary 'got me'. Half those pictures, I took. Good times at his grandma's, my aunts, all the different places we lived, all the children , his and ours together. Quite emotional, and I've got to hold it all in because the people I live with now, have none of that history, and they don't like to hear about it.
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ReplyDeleteI'm here, friend! Finish your coffee, get the laundry going, and start on that spare room. It's time. I love you!
ReplyDelete*deep sighs*
ReplyDelete5 months later, I'm thinking about 'stuff', some things I typed above. Mostly about the secrets, and why do we tell them? Well....I've had a face book now, for over a year and I think I know what it is. We don't want to hurt people's feelings, or change their impression of us. So much easier to be anonymous.
ReplyDeleteEssays, by Estte'
ReplyDelete